Building Johnstown Station

[chicken45]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8348059@N02/6167942746/sizes/l/in/photostream/
With all the great discussion and modelign of the Lewistown station, it got me thinking of the station in my own hometown of Johnstown, PA.
I'd love to build this great Pennsy station, but don't know where to begin.
I've never scratchbuilt anything before, so I was looking for some tips from TRW braintrust. Looking at photos of this, are there any good starting points out there already?

Thanks!

[wm3798]

That is a cool station.  The first thing I would do is look at the basic shapes of the different parts of the building.  It looks like there's the large central box with the pitched roof and large arch windows, then a rectangle around that where the roof is flat.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Johnstown,+PA&hl=en&ll=40.329615,-78.922196&spn=0.000855,0.002064&sll=38.775684,-76.072128&sspn=0.22376,0.528374&oq=Johnstown&t=h&hnear=Johnstown,+Cambria,+Pennsylvania&z=20

There's a bit of distortion in the aerial view, buy you can make out the basic footprint of it.  It looks like there's an annex off to the left, I'm not sure if that would be consistent with every era, but you'd want to look at that as part of the building and decide whether you want to include it or not.

Once you figure out the basic shapes you need to make, you'll want to check the actual dimensions of the building vs. the available real estate on your layout to decide if you need to compress it or otherwise edit it to fit the space, as DKS did for Dr. Vollmer.

Now that you've figured out the general proportions and shapes, you'll look at the photos and available materials and decide what you want to do to build the model.  With the big arch windows, it may work out that you can use some stock structure kits that provide the necessary architectural features, even if they aren't spot on dimension wise.

For instance, when I was working on a representation of these buildings in Cumberland, I found some stuff in my junk box that got me pretty close:




It depends on if you want to model a precise scale model, or just capture the flavor of it.

Finally, you'll want to keep your eyes peeled for details like the pilasters, the window frames, and other features.

Hope this is helpful.
Lee

[Dave V]

Josh, for the big rounded-top windows, could you maybe use parts from a Walthers Northern Power and Light?

[DKS]

Golly, the whole central part of the building looks like Northern Power and Light! Could maybe wrap a couple of sliced-and-diced Kato banks around it. That's just shooting from the hip, mind you...

http://www.internettrains.com/merchant2/graphics/00000001/933-3021.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41jVHwJy23L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

[Philip H]

There's probably also some Walther's Modulars in there, but i think DKS is on to something.

[chicken45]

Wow guys! That's all incredibly helpful! It sure does look like the Light & Power kit.
Google Map Street views actually lets you view the station from 3 sides.
I don't know how close to 100% I could get, but I think these are great starting points.